Direct-to-consumer (DTC) firms increasingly believe that influencer marketing is an effective option for seeding. However, the current managerially relevant question for DTC firms of whether to target low- or high-followership influencers to generate immediate revenue is still unresolved. In this article, the authors’ goal is to answer this question by considering for the first time the whole influencer-marketing funnel, i.e., from followers on user-generated content networks (e.g., on Instagram), to reached followers, to engagement, to actual revenue, while accounting for the cost of paid endorsements. The authors find that low-followership targeting outperforms high-followership targeting by order of magnitude across three performance (ROI) metrics. A mediation analysis reveals that engagement can explain the negative relationship between the influencer followership levels and ROI. This is in line with the rationale based on social capital theory that with higher followership levels of an influencer, the engagement between an influencer and his/her followers decreases. These two findings are derived from secondary sales data of 1,881,533 purchases and results of three full-fledged field studies with hundreds of paid influencer endorsements, establishing the robustness of the findings.
Specialize? Diversify? Do patients care? The authors investigate the demand-side effects of a hospital's portfolio strategy, which entails decisions about the depth and breadth of its service offerings. Positing that both depth (focus) and breadth (related focus) signal expertise, the authors use both archival and experimental evidence to examine these effects. The archival study is based on Florida's State Inpatient Databases for 2006–2015 and spans all major departments in health care delivery. The empirical analysis exploits plausible exogenous variation from other health care markets and reveals that patient choice is positively influenced by a hospital's depth (focus) and breadth (related focus) of expertise in a department. Complementing the archival evidence, the authors also conducted online experiments to examine the signaling effects of hospital portfolio strategy on patient choice behavior. The results provide support for the idea that hospital portfolio strategy influences patients’ perceptions of hospital expertise in focal and related areas and, subsequently, their choice behavior. The authors also highlight potential synergistic effects between focus and related focus and heterogeneity in the effects across departments, payer types, and hospital profit status. These findings underscore the need for managers to adopt a targeted approach to portfolio decisions in health care.
This research explores how marketers can best persuade consumers to act in a collective goal context, such as giving to a donation campaign or signing a petition. The authors examine whether consumers respond differently to fact-based versus affect-based persuasive messages at different stages of a collective campaign. Seven studies demonstrate that the relative impact of fact-based versus affect-based appeals changes with varying distance to the completion of the collective goal. Whereas a fact-based message better persuades consumers to support a collective goal when the distance to completion is large (i.e., far from completion), an affect-based message better persuades consumers to support the goal when the distance to completion is small (i.e., near completion). This enhanced persuasion occurs because the psychological state triggered by the remaining distance matches the message type and, in turn, encourages deeper processing of the appeal.
Despite considerable investment, health outcomes for First Nations people are well below those of the rest of the population in several countries, including Canada, the United States, and Australia. In this article, the authors draw on actor-network theory and the case of Birthing on Country, a successful policy initiative led by First Nations Australians, to explore the decolonization of health services. Using publicly available archival data and the theoretical guidance of actor-network theory, the analysis offers insight into how marketing techniques and technologies can be deployed to achieve improved health outcomes and implement decolonized approaches. The insights provided have theoretical implications for marketing scholarship, social implications for understanding and implementing an agenda of decolonization, and practical implications for health care marketing.
Policy makers and insurers promote the use of generic drugs because they can deliver large savings without sacrificing quality. But these efforts meet resistance from the public, who perceive generic drugs as inferior substitutes for brand name counterparts. Building on literature showing that negative emotions reduce risk-taking, the authors hypothesize that receiving bad medical news (i.e., negative information about one’s health) prompts patients to favor brand name over generic drugs as means to safeguard their health. The evidence exploits low-density lipoprotein cholesterol test results, where a discontinuity from clinical guidelines enables the authors to estimate the causal effect of bad medical news. Using data covering patients’ prescription drug choices across drug classes, the authors find that patients receiving bad medical news become 8% more likely to choose the brand name alternative. The findings are reinforced by a secondary analysis incorporating the similar context of hemoglobin A1c (blood sugar) testing. The authors also find that bad medical news reduces preferences for generics most strongly among drugs of direct clinical relevance for each test, but the effect also manifests among non–clinically relevant drugs.
This article is the first generalizable empirical analysis of dual branding, that is, the supply of private labels (PLs) by national brand (NB) manufacturers. The authors compile a unique data set combining the identity of PL suppliers in over 260 packaged goods categories with multiple years of scanner data in the Spanish grocery market to offer several contributions. First, they provide new descriptive insights on the prevalence of dual branding in categories where the manufacturer does and does not have NBs, the longevity of PL supply arrangements, and the differences in PL sourcing across retailers. Second, they integrate the literature on motivators and dissuaders of dual branding and test the impact of relevant manufacturer, retailer, and dyad characteristics on PL supply in NB and non-NB categories. The results reveal a more nuanced empirical reality than is evident from prior research regarding the role of multicategory scope, fighter brands, NB differentiation, and size and positioning of the retailer's PL. Third, they examine the outcomes of PL supply for the NBs of dual branders and find that starting (terminating) PL supply to a retailer significantly benefits (hurts) the relative distribution depth but not the relative share of the dual brander's NBs at that retailer.
For digital-native fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) manufacturers that sell through their own online channel and have made headway into supermarkets, brand stores can represent the next step in a multichannel distribution strategy. In this research, the authors investigate the impact of introducing a brand store on a digital-native FMCG brand's sales in its existing company-owned online channel and in independent supermarkets, as well as on the brand's supermarket distribution. By incorporating brand store sales and operational costs, this research also specifies the entry effects on the brand's top-line total brand sales and bottom-line operating profit. Based on before-and-after-with-control-group analyses of the entry of ten brand stores by a digital-native FMCG brand, the authors show that brand store entry boosts supermarket sales, partially driven by a brand store's positive effect on the number of supermarkets listing the brand. Although they cannibalize company-owned online sales, brand store entries generate an influx of own brand store sales that offset online channel losses. Still, accounting for brand stores' operational costs reveals that top-line growth is not always enough to preserve the bottom line.
Clinical outreach is a crucial but understudied health care service delivery model. Physicians staffing rural outreach clinics must allocate a limited resource (i.e., their time) between caring for patients at their main sites and outreach locations. Using a unique 30-year data set of decisions made by cardiologists, the authors estimate a constrained utility maximization model of time allocations across home and outreach locations. The results show that travel distance, potential competition, and patient demand for cardiology services significantly influence allocation decisions. This structural model is used to simulate the impact of a predicted reduction in cardiologist supply. The expected impacts are unevenly distributed, with some rural locations experiencing large decreases in access. The authors evaluate two policies to restore rural access: targeted immigration and a subsidy program. A subsidy program with an estimated annual cost of $406,000 can restore outreach after a 10% reduction in cardiologist supply. This option should be preferred to recruiting and supporting five additional cardiologists under a targeted immigration strategy. This research demonstrates the value of marketing modeling in addressing limited access to health care services and evaluating alternative policies for maintaining access in the face of coming physician shortages.
Drawing from the concept of anemoia, the authors propose a new typology of nostalgia called vintage anemoia. Vintage anemoia encompasses consumers’ positive and nostalgic response to vintage cues, regardless of specific historical periods or individual lived experiences. Through a series of seven studies, the authors demonstrate that vintage typography, by evoking feelings of vintage anemoia, can enhance consumer perceptions of product safety. This effect has positive downstream consequences on key marketing outcomes, including brand attitude, purchase intention, and willingness to pay. Furthermore, the effect of vintage anemoia on product safety perceptions remains unaffected by whether product safety information indicates that a product is safe or unsafe. However, the effect diminishes when an explicit indexical cue (year of establishment) is utilized or when promoting futuristic products. The findings contribute to the existing body of knowledge in marketing and provide insights for marketers on leveraging vintage typography as a strategic tool for creating emotional connections with consumers and enhancing perceptions of product safety.
Although in-feed advertising is popular on mainstream platforms, academic research on it is limited. Platforms typically deliver organic content through two methods: subscription by users or recommendation by artificial intelligence. However, little is known about the ad performance between these two channels. This research examines how the performance of in-feed ads, in terms of click-through rates and conversion rates, differs between subscription and recommendation channels and whether these effects are mediated by ad intrusiveness and moderated by ad attributes. Two ad attributes are investigated: ad appeal (informational vs. emotional) and ad link (direct vs. indirect). Study 1 finds that the recommendation channel generates higher click-through rates but lower conversion rates than the subscription channel, and these effects are amplified by informational ad appeal and direct ad links. Study 2 explores channel differences, revealing that the recommendation channel yields less source credibility and content control, reducing consumer engagement with organic content. Studies 3 and 4 validate the mediating role of ad intrusiveness and rule out ad recognition as an alternative explanation. Study 5 uses eye-tracking technology to show that the recommendation channel has lower content engagement, lower ad intrusiveness, and greater ad interest.
Although consumers often value minimalist aesthetics, little work has examined why and when simple packaging designs of consumable products enhance consumer outcomes. The authors theorize that simple packaging evokes a symbolic association whereby minimizing design complexity signals that the product contains few ingredients, which increases perceived product purity and willingness to pay (WTP). A field study examining a supermarket chain's product packages (N = 1,353) provided preliminary support for this increase in WTP and two boundary conditions. Six preregistered studies replicated these effects and tested the underlying process. Studies 1a and 1b showed that the increase in WTP for simple packaging is driven by few-ingredients inferences increasing perceived product purity. Study 2 demonstrated the increase in WTP using an incentive-compatible design. Study 3 reinforced the proposed process via moderated mediation. Lastly, Studies 4 and 5 tested the boundary conditions in the field study, showing that WTP for simple packaging decreases when the product is from a store (vs. nonstore) brand and when consumers have an indulgence (vs. health) goal. These findings offer theoretical and managerial insight into minimalist aesthetics.
Many studies have found that allowing customers to self-design products using customization configurators generates high value for customers. However, in practice, high abandonment rates cast doubt on these findings. In the present article, this contradiction is resolved by analyzing consumers’ experiences during the creative process. Six studies provide converging evidence that consumers abandon customization because their valence during the process is U-shaped: initial high expectations prompt consumers to start self-designing in the first place, but they quickly find, to their frustration, that their (interim) design solutions are less attractive and the self-designing process is less enjoyable than they originally anticipated. Unaware that their enjoyment of the process would ultimately increase if they persisted through this phase, they abandon the self-design process altogether. It is only if the consumer overcomes the minimum of the U of valence that they harness the potential value from self-designing. This problematic pattern can be managed by providing social feedback during the self-design process. These findings contribute not only to the customization literature but also more generally to the understanding of consumers’ goal pursuit by enhancing its scope to creative tasks.
Brands invest tremendous resources into building engagement with their customers on social media. But considerably less focus is placed on addressing disengagement, when users actively choose to distance themselves from the brand through reduced posting or even unfollowing. The authors find that the same self–brand connections that lead individuals to defensively protect the brand can also lead them to experience shame vicariously when others mention the brand in socially unacceptable ways. Experiencing vicarious shame motivates them to distance themselves from the brand, driving disengagement. Three mixed-method studies show that a socially unacceptable behavior—using profanity while mentioning the brand—leads highly connected consumers to experience vicarious shame, prompting disengagement motivations and ultimately leading to real-world unfollowing behaviors on social media. The authors also show that proactive moderation behaviors by the brand can attenuate these responses. These results provide insight into the process by which self–brand connection interacts with socially unacceptable brand mentions and suggest a limitation to the insulating effects of strong self–brand connections.
Mental simulation is an important tool for managers who want consumers to imagine what life would be like if they engaged in positive consumption behaviors. However, research has found mixed effects of mental simulation on behavior. To understand this inconsistency, the authors conduct a meta-analysis to quantify the effect of different mental simulation prompts. This multivariate three-level meta-analysis of 237 effect sizes spanning four decades (1980–2020) and representing 40,705 respondents yields a positive but small effect of mental simulation on behavioral responses. Managers and researchers can amplify this effect by using dynamic visual inductions (e.g., augmented reality), inductions involving both visuals and verbal instructions, and repeated inductions spaced over time (e.g., weekly, akin to real-world marketing campaigns). Inducing simulations repeatedly but massed (e.g., using the same message at the same time across different platforms or retargeting ads) actually reduces subsequent behavioral performance. The authors explain the implications of these findings for theory and practice and identify novel avenues for research.
A circular economy is a "closed-loop" system designed so that products flow back into the production cycle after use. With many companies implementing take-back programs as part of their sustainability strategy, a fundamental shift in consumption has occurred, with consumers considering disposal during and even before purchase decision making. Eight experiments reveal that consumers indicate a greater willingness to pay for circular program products. An increase in psychological ownership underlies the difference in product valuation. Specifically, the additional disposal control uniquely afforded by circular products increases the capacity of circular take-back program products to evoke psychological ownership. The process explanation is directly tested through mediation. Experimentally manipulating antecedents of psychological ownership (i.e., disposal control and psychological ownership) provides further support for the conceptual framework.
A bankrupt buyer firm's interactions with its suppliers during bankruptcy have critical implications for both parties and for the broader economy, yet these interactions remain poorly understood. The authors build on research on buyer–supplier relationship dynamics to demonstrate that accommodative and exploitative velocities—the rate and direction of change in the corresponding acts—serve as signals affecting bankruptcy survival. They show how signal characteristics (i.e., the variability in accommodative and exploitative acts) and signaler characteristics (i.e., whether the party undertaking the acts is the buyer or its suppliers) moderate the impact of accommodative and exploitative velocities on bankruptcy survival. Study 1 examines the bankruptcy survival outcome of 310 U.S. bankruptcies over 14 years and finds that a 1% increase in accommodative (exploitative) velocity increases (decreases) the buyer's survival by 39% (33%). Further, variability in accommodative acts weakens their effect, and suppliers' (vs. the buyer's) accommodative and exploitative velocities are less deterministic of the buyer's bankruptcy survival. Study 2 uses a scenario-based experiment to shed light on the mechanism underlying the impact of the two velocities on bankruptcy survival. The findings from both studies demonstrate the key role played by buyer–supplier interactions in a buyer's bankruptcy survival.
Specialty drugs treat complex, severe diseases and offer significant therapeutic advances. Despite their potential to transform patient care, little is known about the drivers of their diffusion. In this study, the authors develop a framework for the diffusion of specialty drugs that is motivated by the drugs' novelty, complexity, and importance, with a focus on the role of scientific evidence production. They propose that the effects of scientific evidence on specialty drug diffusion are multifaceted and generated through the three stages of the scientific evidence production process: unpublished clinical studies, publications in medical journals not cited in clinical guidelines, and clinical guidelines. The findings from the empirical analysis of two specialty drugs validate the framework, supporting the idea of multistage scientific evidence effects. In contrast, marketing activities do not have a significant effect. Although this could be attributed to specialty drug prescribers discounting information from commercial sources, it may also be due to limited marketing support. An additional analysis on a nonspecialty drug further validates the proposed framework. Calculations of scientific evidence contributions to trial prescriptions indicate that scientific evidence production can generate returns beyond the publication stage, which should provide specialty drug manufacturers with strong incentives to commit to quality and innovation.
This research introduces behavioral labeling as the use of names or tags that reflect an associated activity, and it proposes that this can induce corresponding behavior. Contrary to the common intuition that descriptions of behaviors emerge as markings for popular actions (i.e., the label is a consequence of the behavior), the authors propose that a description itself might also induce the corresponding action (i.e., the label is an antecedent of the behavior). Building on linguistic relativity theory and based on five studies conducted in the lab and field, the authors show that merely attaching a fictitious name to a behavior can induce that very behavior. The authors also explore a potential explanation for this finding by showing that a behavioral label can evoke mental imagery regarding the associated behavior, which enhances the implementation of the behavior. The results contribute to marketing theory by introducing behavioral labeling and highlighting how language can shape behaviors. Marketers can use behavioral labels to promote their offerings based on the associated behaviors, while public policy makers can use behavioral labels to encourage prosocial and proenvironmental behaviors.
The authors examine the effects of a firm's and its competitors' online reviews on its demand within the hotel industry. The authors leverage a unique data set of actual bookings from properties of a major hotel chain in six different markets in the United States, supplemented with online reviews garnered from a popular social media platform. The findings indicate that not only a hotel's own reviews but also its competitors' reviews have a significant impact on the hotel's booking performance. The impact of review sentiment is amplified if the focal hotel also charges higher prices or when the volume of reviews is high. The authors establish heterogeneous effects across consumer segments (business vs. leisure travelers) and by the type of review content (objective vs. subjective attributes to assess quality). Specifically, both a hotel's own reviews and its competitors' reviews have a larger impact on bookings for business travelers compared with leisure travelers, and for reviews that mainly discuss subjective attributes, for which consumers need to rely on the experiences of others to assess the quality of a hotel prior to their stay. The study provides a set of comprehensive insights on the impact of both own and competitors' online reviews on a focal hotel's bookings.
